2001 /2002 Season

The season, our first in Junior Division One, began under a bit of a cloud as striker, Brad Cron, broke down in a pre-season friendly. He was diagnosed as damaging his cruciate ligament which would require an operation and keep him out for the season.

The first game against Inspec resulted in a superb 7 - 0 home victory with new striker, Andy Webster, grabbing a hat-trick. This was followed by a 1 - 0 win at Itchen Manor, Andy Webster again finding the net and Southampton City sat proudly at the top of the early season table without conceding a goal. However, this good form soon faded and was followed by 3 straight defeats in league. The first round of the Hampshire Junior A Cup bought a home tie against former winners, Haslar Sports, from the Gosport League. A spirited performance led to a hard-fought 4 -2 victory and this bought back some confidence to the team. Back in the league, a win, a draw and narrow defeat followed as the club maintained a mid table position in the league. 

In November, the fixture list meant we had 3 consecutive Cup matches and by the end of these, we were out of all the cups we had entered. Firstly, high flying Commercial Houses Division side, AFC Blues, comprehensively beat us 5 -2 at Totton College. We were then matched with Real Sholing, who at the time were unbeaten leaders of Junior One in the DR Ryder Trophy (League Cup). Although we played well, we went down 4 - 2 against very strong opponents. We felt we had a good chance of progressing in the Southampton Junior A Cup after drawing Junior 2 opponents, United Parcels, but we turned in easily our worst performance of the season, embarrassingly going down 7 - 0 at Green Park.

After these disappointment, we only had the league to focus on and we had high hopes of a top five finish. We put in a good performance at Pirelli General and felt unfortunate to go down 2 - 0. The following week we picked up a 1 - 0 victory at home to West End Saints with Jason Berry scrambling in his only goal of the season. A spirited fight back followed at Fountain Inn the next week with two goals in the final three minutes salvaging a 2 - 2 draw. Our form dipped again as we suffered back to back home defeats to Whitenap and Real Sholing and then struggled to a 1 - 1 home draw to bottom of the table Itchen Manor.  Another home defeat to Victoria Sports left in the relagation positions with only 3 games to play.

The away fixture at Inspec became a really significant match for us as they stood one point and one position above us. The match started badly for us and we soon found ourselves 2 - o down. A goal from Andy Webster just before half time bought us back into the match. Despite spending the whole of the second half camped in the Inspec half and hitting the woodwork 3 times, we had to rely on an own goal, 5 minutes from time, to enable us to scrape a point. 

By the time we had to play our final two matches, Itchen Manor had completed their fixtures and had finished bottom. Inspec had also completed their fixtures and remained 1 point and 1 place above us but we had a much superior goal difference. We knew that one point from either of our two remaining away matches would secure our Junior One status.

At West End Saints, a battling first half performance took us to a 2 -1 half time lead but opponents rallied well in the second half. This, coupled with some defensive mistakes, meant we slipped to a 4 - 2 defeat. So it all went down to our final match of the season.

The unbeaten league champions, Real Sholing, awaited us for our final match of the season at BTC in Stoneham Lane. We still needed a point for Division One survival. Every player put in great effort and we deservedly took the lead on 29 minutes when Dan Foot dribbled his way past 3 Sholing defenders before putting the ball in the corner of the net from just inside the box. Real Sholing looked subdued and certainly now looked beatable. In the 67th minute following our left wing corner, the Real Sholing defenders failed to clear the ball and Andy Webster prodded home from 7 yards to the delight of the players and supporters alike. Real Sholing rarely threatened in the last 20  minutes but they did hit the crossbar late on and then we knew it would be our day. What a way to secure our Junior One Status by being the only side to defeat the League Champions. The celebrations at the White Horse carried on late into the evening.

Final Junior One League Table

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